Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral... [read more]

The Washington Post discerns a strategy emerging from John Kerry and his actions this week in yodeling a filibuster demand from the Swiss Alps to block the confirmation of Samuel Alito. Kerry has decided that the blogs and the leftist activists that control them own the Democratic Party future and has aligned himself with them for better or worse, as seen in Jim Vandehei's report in today's Washington Post:

Liberal activists seemed to have slightly more influence with their campaign to persuade Senate Democrats to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. Despite several polls showing that the public opposes the effort, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) on Thursday strongly advocated the filibuster plan -- and wrote about his choice on the Daily Kos, a Web site popular with liberals. Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), a leading liberal and critic of the Iraq war, told reporters Kerry's viewpoint is not shared by most in a culturally conservative swing state such as West Virginia. Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) also opposes the filibuster. ...

"John Kerry is beginning to bring the traditional Democratic leadership in Washington together with the untraditional netroots activists of the country," James Boyce wrote on the Huffington Post. "A man often accused of being the ultimate Washington insider looked outside of the beltway and saw the concern, in fact, the distress among literally millions of online Democrats."

Democrats should take careful note of this development, which shows exactly how desperate Kerry has become in his desire to win the Presidency. He knows that the party establishment will have nothing to do with another Kerry candidacy, having failed miserably against a vulnerable George Bush. This week, in his decision to post at Daily Kos (which he disavowed during his campaign after Kos' "Screw them" statement) and his sudden passion for a filibuster, he has now separated himself from the current party leadership to make himself the chief representative of the activist base. He wants to convince the bloggers and the special-interest groups that run the Democratic Party that he speaks for them, not for some namby-pamby centrist urge promoted by the Democratic Leadership Council.

What does that mean? It will help fuel the split on the Left that started with Dean's ascension as primary front-runner in 2003. Instead of refocusing efforts to appear reasonable to the American voters, the party will have its radical wing on full flight in 2006, drawing attention to its passionate insistence on obstructionism, impeachment, surrender in Iraq and Southwest Asia, and the further growth of socialism in the US. All of this will prove exceeding popular -- with 20% of the American electorate. Unfortunately, as the Dean Scream and the Kerry presidential campaign showed, it doesn't translate into electoral victory. It doesn't even translate into good fundraising, as the DNC has discovered during Dean's chairmanship of the party.

Kerry's actions this week are all about positioning himself as the anti-Establishment candidate for 2008, the Eugene McCarthy of the next presidential election cycle. Just as he stole a march on Howard Dean after the Vermont governor stumbled in Iowa, Kerry plans to manipulate the left-wing elements of the base to carry him through the primaries against the party Establishment's choice, Hillary Clinton. If that means civil war in the Democratic Party, then Kerry appears happy to foment it.